


girl in red

by Spencer_Grey



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: F/F, OR IS IT, Unrequited Crush, disaster lesbian, no one in this show is straight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spencer_Grey/pseuds/Spencer_Grey
Summary: "Sarah’s softer than the boys. That must be it. She’s not all sharp angles and pointy bones -- there’s a tenderness to her that Kie won’t get with the boys. That’s not a bad thing, it means she can have the best of both worlds. Pogues and Kooks."-Kiara falls for the Kook princess.
Relationships: Sarah Cameron/Kiara
Comments: 12
Kudos: 118





	girl in red

Kiara spends the first day of freshman year with a wild heart, trembling hands, and everything to prove. For the first time since she met them, she’s without her Pogues -- without her armour to keep her sane amongst this chaos. Their absence feels more like an open wound, and every stare and hushed whisper that's thrown her way is salt sprinkled into the injury. 

But she knows better than to let the Kook academy see her falter so she holds her head up high. She’s never cared about what others thought of her, why should she start now?

Anyway, her parents worked hard to send her here, the least she can do is make the most out of it. 

The only thing keeping her going is the promise that her boys will be waiting for her after school. They’d spent last night together, pretending not to care that the group was being separated, and instead acted as though nothing was happening. 

This little thing can’t keep them apart. 

Still, throughout the day Kiara fidgets with the bracelet Pope had given her last night -- he was the one who’d picked it up fastest when she taught them how to make them. 

Kie keeps mostly to herself as the day drags on. Though she’s known most of these people since they were all kids, she’s never had a reason to interact with them and she won’t look for one now. 

She’s still a Pogue, after all. 

She can deal with the odd looks and less than welcoming attitude because soon enough, the final bell rings and the students pile out in one large clump. It’s effortless to spot her boys, not that they could ever blend in with Kooks.

JJ and John B stand dripping wet while Pope remains completely dry. Of course, they’d ditch the first day of school for a surf. 

Kiara rolls her eyes, pushing through the crowd to reach them. 

JJ sees her first, springing his usual shit-eating grin. “Surprised you even recognise us,” he teases, earning a light shove from her. 

“Yeah,” John B says, “thought the Kooks would’ve corrupted you already.”

“There’s nothing that can make me forget you idiots,” she says sweetly, “believe me, I’ve tried many things.”

Pope throws his arm around her shoulders, looking at her with pleading eyes and says with the utmost sincerity, “You have to come back, Kie, I can’t deal with them by myself. 

“You’re on your own. I don’t have to put up with them anymore.” She wraps an arm around Pope’s waist, relaxing for the first time today in his hold. 

John B and JJ gasp dramatically, falling against each other in exaggerated offence. As much as she tries not to, Kiara can’t help but smile fondly at them. It’s been a long day without them to make her laugh, to ease her anxiety. 

“They’ve made you mean, Kie,” JJ says.

“Yeah, that really hurt my feelings,” John B adds. 

“Good. Now, are we just gonna stand here or can we go? I’m sick of this place already.” Kie starts walking without waiting for a response and the Pogues follow her naturally. 

“Someone’s feisty,” she hears JJ mutter. 

Sandwiched between Pope and John B, and with JJ’s never-ending rambling, Kiara leaves the Kook academy behind her -- figuring that, as long as she has the Pogues at the end of every day, this year can’t be that bad. 

-

Kiara’s never thought about boys before. Not in the way everyone expects her to -- in the way she didn’t even know she was supposed to. She likes the Pogues, loves them with every piece of her soul but she realises quick enough that’s not the same. 

She’s not supposed to like boys like best friends. She’s supposed to like them the way Caitlin likes Max from the tenth grade, the way Grace wants Marcus to kiss her behind the school. 

She learns this at a rather confusing slumber party, one she only got an invitation to because their moms are friends. As the conversation quickly slips into which boy has the cutest smile or the nicest eyes, Kie is content to slip away into the background. No one even notices as she goes into the kitchen to get a drink.

Is there something wrong with her? Maybe she’s a late bloomer, like how her mom had suggested after asking about the boys at the Kook academy. It’s strange how everyone else seems so preoccupied with such trivial things. 

What’s so special about boys anyway? They’re all the same in the end -- gross and obnoxious and only some of them are nice. Some being limited to John B, JJ, and Pope.

Whatever. She’ll probably learn how to like boys soon enough.

“Are you okay?”

Kiara tries not to jump at the sudden voice, turning around to find Sarah Cameron before her, always dominating every room she stands in -- in a good way though. 

Kie stares owlishly at her. Sarah Cameron is… well, she’s Sarah Cameron. 

She has the nicest smile out of everyone at school. She’s always happy and warm and kind -- and not that Kiara will ever tell anyone, but she’s a little intimidated by the person every girl wants to be friends with and every boy wants to date. 

Sarah let Kiara use her chapstick after Kie said she liked the smell, and she couldn’t speak for almost an hour.

And here she is, with Kie, standing in the kitchen of a mutual friend, the low light casting her face into shadow but Kiara can always make out her earnest eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m - I’m fine. Did you come just to check on me?” Kiara tries to swallow but her throat has gone dry, her heartbeat picking up just enough to create a small pit of anxiety in her stomach. 

Is she getting sick?

Sarah bobs awkwardly on her heels. “You just looked really uncomfortable back there,” she says. “Are you sure you’re good?”

Her presence alone drives Kie insane, and she finds that words are barely escaping her lips. 

“I - it’s just - I guess I’m a little nervous.” It’s not technically a lie, but just not what Sarah was asking about. 

“Really? Why?”

“I… I haven’t been to a slumber party before,” Kiara admits quietly, praying the other girls aren’t listening. 

If it were anyone else, they would’ve laughed in Kiara’s face, would’ve made fun of the new, weird girl. But no Sarah -- never Sarah, she doesn’t have a bad bone in her body. She’s so unlike every other Kook Kie knows. 

Sarah gives a small smile, an attempt to be comforting. “Trust me, you’re not missing out on much.” 

“That’s easy for you to say.” The words come out harsher than Kiara meant them to but it doesn’t seem like Sarah takes much offence, taking it in stride. 

Without missing a beat she says, “I guess you’re right. I’ll just have to invite you to every slumber party until you understand.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Next weekend, my place, you don’t have a choice. And I’ll invite Stacey and Piper.”

“Don't they hate each other,” Kiara asks, growing confused with every second Sarah spends with her. 

“Exactly. You’ll get to deal with them fighting all night and one of them will  _ definitely  _ cry. Everyone has to go through it at some point.”

“It doesn’t count if you force it to happen,” Kiara objects, feeling a smile spread across her lips. 

“Then you’ll have to be there to make sure I play by the rules.”

Kie notices that Sarah’s taken a few steps closer, their bodies close to being flushed together. There’s a twinkle in Sarah’s eyes, her teasing smile as warm as the summer’s sun, and there’s a voice screaming for Kie to just  _ take one more step _ . 

She doesn’t. And can’t quite tell whether she’s happy or disappointed. 

“Deal,” Kiara forces out, her stomach has turned to butterflies, heart fluttering in her chest so loud Sarah must be able to hear it. 

“Good,” she says. “Do you wanna go back now?”

Kiara can only nod and Sarah takes her by the hand, leading her back into the living room and to the rest of the girls. Kie suddenly finds she can’t breathe through the closeness, electricity sapping between their fingertips that only she can feel. 

Effortlessly, Sarah diverts the conversation away from boys and onto that one bitchy teacher from school no one likes. Kiara laughs at every joke she makes, hangs onto every word, and agrees far too eagerly when Sarah asks if they can put their sleeping bags together. 

With Sarah Cameron behind her, the Kook academy doesn’t seem so scary anymore. 

-

The next day, Sarah says some sea turtle eggs are about to hatch, she wants to make sure they get into the ocean okay, and wants Kiara to join her. 

She’s physically incapable of saying no. 

And, no matter what happens in the future, Kie will never regret going. The sun turns Sarah’s eyes into sweet honey, her smile glowing bright enough to burn. The waves gently crash behind them as they leap and shout at the birds trying to score a meal and watch in awe at the baby turtles scurrying across the warm sand for the water. 

It’s perfect.

The Pogues never would’ve done this -- they’d be too busy trying to throw each other onto the ground -- but Sarah looks as though there’s not a single place on Earth she’d rather be. 

Her giddy laughs catch on the wind as she trips over her own feet. After a moment to laugh, Kiara goes to help her up only for Sarah to pull her down and they tumble into a heap together. 

Sarah’s laughing so hard she can’t catch her breath and no one has ever looked more gorgeous. The sunshine drapes over her body, casting her in a glow that reveals her true form as an angel. One Kiara doesn’t even deserve to be in the presence of but she’d give anything to freeze this moment in time, to stay like this forever. 

When the last baby sea turtle swims away, Sarah throws an arm around Kie’s shoulders, letting their heads resting against each other. 

Kiara’s been like this with the Pogues a million times, been so close she could feel their heartbeats and every breath, but this… nothing’s made her heart flutter this dangerously fast before and she can’t work out why. 

Sarah’s softer than the boys. That must be it. She’s not all sharp angles and pointy bones -- there’s a tenderness to her that Kie won’t get with the boys. That’s not a bad thing, it means she can have the best of both worlds. Pogues and Kooks. 

They go back to the Wreck and dine on free milkshakes and fries. Somehow, Sarah can even make the salty sea spray smell less intrusive than Kie. 

The early evening crawls closer and Kie offers to walk her home. The entire time their hands keep brushing against each other until Sarah simply intertwines their hands together. 

They swing their arms obnoxiously high until either one gives up, they sneak in Sarah’s neighbour’s backyard in lieu of a shortcut and run as fast as their legs will go when they get caught. And when Sarah’s house finally catches up to them, she throws her arms around Kiara in a tight hug. 

“We should do this again,” she says into Kie’s ear before disappearing inside. 

Kiara’s frozen solid for a moment, still feeling the weight of Sarah Cameron’s hand in hers. 

She may not like boys yet but if it’s anything like this -- like having a best friend -- then she can’t wait. 

-

Kiara’s not  _ ignoring  _ the Pogues. It’s just sometimes she forgets to call them back and whenever they want to hang out, Kiara’s already with Sarah. And she’s always with Sarah. 

The Kook had lived up to her promise of slumber parties and Kie ends up spending most weekends at the Cameron house -- generally when it’s just the two of them. She’s absolutely loving it. 

Being an only child means her first taste of having siblings is making fun of Rafe when he’s being weird -- which is all the time, it’s Rafe -- or when Wheezie refuses to leave Sarah’s room because she thinks Kiara’s cool. 

There’s one night where a storm comes in faster than anyone expected and Kie’s forced to stay at the Cameron house, which neither girl complains about. They huddle together in Sarah’s bed, the lights are flicked off and thunder claps in the distance as some shitty horror movie plays on her laptop. 

Every predictable jumpscare makes Sarah flinch, makes her curl closer and closer into Kiara’s side until she’s holding the other girl. 

Lightning strikes. The flash illuminates the room for a split second and in that time, Kie looks down at Sarah. She’s gripping her hand so tight it’s starting to hurt but Kiara doesn’t mind. 

The only thing that really matters is that she’s here. With Sarah. Her warm eyes amusingly wide, lips drawn in a light line as she holds Kiara like a lifeline. Kie’s heart is racing for an entirely different reason to Sarah’s. 

And in that breath, in that mental polaroid she will never forget, chills slither down her spine, a lump forming in the back of her throat. And everything in the entire world makes sense at that moment. 

Kiara doesn’t like boys -- never has, never will. But she likes Sarah. 

She likes Sarah the way Caitlin likes Max from tenth grade, the way Grace wants Marcus to kiss her. 

Her best friend and the only crush Kiara has ever had. 

_ Crush _ . 

Oh God, this can’t end well. 

-

It doesn't. 

Kiara comes crawling back to the Pogues with a chiller full of stolen beer from her dad’s fridge, a weak smile, and a thousand apologies at the ready. 

The dock behind John B’s was once a sanctuary for them all and now it’s frozen in a thick tension. Yet, they don’t ask what happened -- so Kiara never tells them. Never explains that it doesn’t really matter if the entire Kook academy thinks she’s a snitch. 

She’s utterly wrecked because Sarah hates her. 

JJ takes the first beer. His anger has always burned the brightest, been the hottest flame, only to die out just as quickly. He ropes her into a conversation full of banter as if she never left -- or is trying to pretend she didn’t. 

Pope probably couldn’t hold much of a grudge if he tried, especially not against her, and while he’s distant for some time, he’s no more awkward than normal. He catches Kiara up on all the dumb things he’s been forced to sit through, happy that he’s no longer the group’s sole voice of reason. 

John B takes a little longer than the other two, the one to bother asking  _ why. Why’d you leave us? Why are you even here? _

Kiara doesn’t lie. Not exactly. 

“I was trying to be someone I’m not. And I’m sick of it.” Someone who wasn’t in love with their best friend. 

Her brief answer seems to satisfy John B and -- given time -- the Pogues are better than before, inseparable, for real this time. 

That night, as time wears on, Pope goes home and John B turns in -- leaving JJ and Kiara to crawl into the hammock, laying on opposite ends to face each other despite the fact that it’s too dark to see each other. 

Kiara prefers it this way. She feels no pressure to say the right thing and finally lets herself talk openly as JJ does the same -- asking what he must have wanted to say before. 

“Honestly, Kie,” he says, the dim glow of his blunt between his fingers, “what was so wrong with being a Kook? You always seemed pretty happy with that Sarah Cameron chick.”

Her name in his mouth feels wrong. Tears are already threatening to brim in her eyes but she forces them back, she won’t cry over this, over her. 

“I was,” she says eventually. “I just - I guess I wasn’t good enough for her.”

“Fuck her, then --” Kiara snorts but JJ pays no mind to it -- “She’s the one that’s not good enough.”

She gives something that’s between a sniffle and a scoff. “Thanks, JJ but I still really like her, you know?” Pressure rises in her chest, everything she’s kept hidden this past year is begging to be released. 

And she can’t find a reason not to let it fall. 

“Yeah, I get it, you were close.” 

JJ takes a hit and Kiara rushes to speak as if he somehow wouldn’t be able to hear her. “You don’t.”

Obviously, he heard that, adjusting himself so he’s resting on his elbows. Even in the darkness, Kiara can feel his expecting gaze. 

She doesn’t  _ have  _ to tell him anything. But it’s JJ. She can tell him anything. 

Without being prompted, Kie forces out, “I like her, JJ --” her eyes bounce from the shimmering water and his shadowed face -- “like like her.”

He lays back down, watching the night sky. “You really know how to pick ‘em,” he says, completely unfazed. 

It’s stupid but it’s like the weight of the world has been lifted from her shoulders -- simply saying it neutralising the threat. 

A silence falls over them, both unsure what more could be said. 

Until, after a long quiet moment, JJ speaks up, a tremor in his voice that instinctively makes her worried. “Hey, Kie.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s, uh, there’s someone I think I like. Like like.”

“Really? What’s her name?”

“Pope.”

Despite herself, Kiara can’t help but burst out laughing and after hesitating for a second, JJ joins in. Because  _ of course. _ Of course, it’s them two and of course  _ this _ is how they decide to do it. 

The hammock shakes and rocks under them but neither care, bodies consumed in stupid and stoned laughter until their cheeks and ribs ache. 

-

Kiara only likes three boys: JJ, Pope, and John B. And sometimes she doesn’t even like them. 

When John B decides to bring Sarah Cameron in on their gold hunt, Kiara is  _ fuming _ . The bitch that not only broke her heart but turned an entire school against her now gets to be a part of the most exciting piece of Kiara’s life. 

Even worse, John B has to be a stupid boy and falls for her. 

Kiara could handle it for a little while -- she at least had JJ and Pope to complain to, thinking she could trust them to stay on her side. Until they all lure her on to a boat and leave her with Sarah. 

She only gets through it because she’s concocting ways to get them back. 

Night falls and Sarah is so annoying when she’s stoned. If the town wasn’t dealing with three homicide’s, Kiara would seriously consider throwing Sarah overboard. But if she has to deal with this -- knowing the Pogues will only keep trying -- Kie decides to ask the one thing that’s been hounding her ever since she left the Kook academy. 

And Sarah answers with the one thing she never saw coming. 

“I liked you.” 


End file.
